More things I wish I knew

[Kyung]

When you are a court reporter, you are so many more things than a court reporter.

You are a bill collector. Most of the time the checks will come in on time and they will be correct. Sometimes they won't. Please, for the love of God, look at your check and compare it to what you think you should be getting. Everybody makes mistakes. Lots of math errors and misunderstandings regarding rates. I think you said business lit is this rate and now you're saying it's this rate. Better to ask than be sorry down the road when you find out you're not making the money that you thought you were going to.

You are your own calendar. Many times different agencies will be calling you for the same day. Keep track of who you've promised to work for. If you do not, it will bit you on the ass. You will have ended up double booking yourself. Always very bad. In the long run, if you do this on a continuous basis, agencies will stop calling you because you will get a rep for being unreliable and you won't get the best jobs.

Also, sometimes you're calendar for the attorney. At the end of the depo, he will say to you, we've got more depos scheduled for such-and-such a day. Let the agency you're working for know they've got depos scheduled. That will give them a heads up and you will be more likely to be scheduled for those jobs. I had an instance where the depo times had been changed, but nobody notified the agency. Fortunately, I showed up early and was able to clarify the time the depos were scheduled since they were supposed to go three days in a row. You are the reporter on site. At the end of the day, if they change the time of the depo, no one will know except you and the attorneys. So if you are not scheduled tomorrow, the reporter the next day will be late. Trust me, the first thing on the attorney's mind after a long day of depo is not to call their secretary with a time change for tomorrow's depo.

You are the repository. When you take those exhibits home w/you and until you get them to the agency, you are in charge of those exhibits. Please be sure that you have all the exhibits before you leave the depo. Lately, I have ended up chasing attorneys and witnesses down the hall bec. they've walked out with the exhibits. Watch those attorneys and witnesses like a hawk. If they've attached an exhibit to a transcript, make sure you get the exhibit. Trust me, it is a 1000 times easier to walk out with the exhibit than have to spend fruitless hours e-mailing and calling the attorney's office to get a copy of the exhibit. Tip - ask to speak the attorney's legal assistant or secretary. They are most likely the ones who keep track of things like exhibits for different cases. Be prepared w/case name, deponent name, and date of depo.

You are your own boss. Reward yourself. There is no boss out there who is going to say, hey, you're doing a great job. Take the day off. You must do it for yourself. Give yourself a pat on the back. This is a difficult profession. Take time to enjoy the down time or make time for yourself now and again. On the reverse side, we do not get sick days. If you are not feeling well, take time off and take care of yourself.

Tech support. You don't have an IT department. Know your equipment and your software. Yeah, my software has 24/7 support. Yeah. But if they depo is ready to go, they're not going to want to wait until you get a call back from your software support. Become familiar w/your computer.

There are so many different things that you will be called upon to do that you will never ever be able to imagine. So be aware, producing the transcript is but one small part of being a court reporter.